Germany May Ease Citizen Law

Longtime Resident Would Be Helped

January 25, 1993|By New York Times News Service.

BERLIN — At the same time they are tightening laws to slow an influx of asylum seekers, German legislators are planning to make it easier for foreigners who have long lived in Germany to become citizens.

A change in citizenship laws could prove a great social and psychological step for the country, by suggesting that Germans are moving, at least legally, toward acceptance of a multicultural society.

Obtaining citizenship in Germany is more difficult than in most other Western countries. Children born to non-Germans are not given automatic citizenship, even if both parents were also born in Germany.

The issue has resurfaced with a new urgency because of recent racist and rightist violence against foreigners in Germany. Stung by charges that they are not protecting the rights of foreigners, government leaders are supporting efforts to rewrite the citizenship law, which was adopted in 1913 in a period of intense nationalist pride. Many consider the law an embarrassing relic of an era when Germans sought to protect their supposed racial purity.

To slow a refugee tide that is aggravating social tensions and straining resources, major parties in the German Parliament recently reached agreement on a new law to restrict the rights of foreign asylum-seekers. As part of their accord, they also agreed to make it easier for some longtime foreign residents to obtain citizenship.

But legislators are divided over how drastically the existing citizenship law should be changed, and they do not expect to have a bill ready for passage until next year.

"We have to make it easier to become German," said Erwin Marschewski, a member of parliament from the governing Christian Democratic Union. "We have too many cases of people who were born in Germany or who have lived most of their lives here, who speak the language and are fully integrated, but who cannot become citizens."

"On the other hand," Marschewski said, "a baby born in Brazil is entitled to German citizenship if he is descended from some German who emigrated in 1850, even if the family has lost all contact with Germany."

Becoming a naturalized German citizen is a complex and costly process, involving fees that sometimes exceed $3,000. The law allows foreigners who have lived here for 15 years-or for eight years if they are under 23-to apply for citizenship.

Applicants are screened by police investigators and most are rejected. Some are rejected on the ground that they had violated minor tax or traffic laws or for unspecified reasons. Many foreigners believe there is a bias against applicants with a background of political activity.

About 10,000 non-Germans have been naturalized in each of the last few years, in addition to immigrants from Eastern Europe of several times that number who are considered "ethnic Germans" and are entitled to almost automatic citizenship.

Under proposals being studied in Bonn, foreigners who have lived here for perhaps eight years, or who have attended schools in Germany, would be granted citizenship without great expense or exhaustive background checks.